AI in logistics: handing exceptions to the next shift

First the identifier and the time of the event

Link the materials to a specific order or shipment. A similar client name is not enough, especially when you handle several deliveries on the same day. Also record when the event happened and when the information reached the system. A message received later can describe an earlier state.

GS1 describes EPCIS as a standard for sharing event data, covering among other things the object, the time, the place and the business context of a movement in the supply chain. It is an example of ordering information that a later summary can use. It does not mean that your TMS or WMS already supplies such data, or that a simple summary needs the whole standard rolled out. GS1 description, checked on 9 October 2026.

A planned time does not confirm a delivery

In a fictional exercise, the system shows a planned receipt at 14:00. At 13:40 the operator gets a message that the carrier expects to arrive at 16:00. At 14:15 there is still no event confirming receipt. From this data you can write a description of the delivery still awaited and give the new forecast. You cannot state that the delivery arrived at 14:00.

In the handover, record separately the time from the plan, the carrier's forecast and the lack of confirmation that it happened. Add the source of the message and who is to check what happens next. If a time for the next contact was agreed, keep it as the next task; do not add one on the strength of the model's guess.

In the next version of the exercise, add a late receipt message. Check whether the summary uses the time of the event itself, whatever order the messages arrived in. None of these versions describes a completed rollout.

What should the person taking over the case see?

Before the list goes out, the operator should check how messages were assigned and how exceptions were described. If a standard TMS report already gives such a view, use it as the reference point. AI makes more sense for free-text notes and correspondence that someone has to read and shorten.

If delays also arise outside the shift handover, look at choosing automation in logistics. Missing data, a WMS rule and the physical movement of goods each need their own assessment.

If open cases arrive mainly by email, review the proposed scope for transport email. It covers several requests in one thread and a reply that closes only one of them. That helps you decide what should stay on the list for the next shift.

How do you assess the first scope?

Compare the prepared summary with a manual handover of the same cases. Record missed exceptions, wrong assignments and sentences that suggest something happened when it was not confirmed. Measure the time it takes to check the whole list. A shorter description does not help if the next shift has to read every message again.

You can first practise preparing the note in the company's own tool. Syntalith's offer for transport and logistics lets you compare training with process automation; the basis for pricing is on the pricing page. Pulling events automatically and writing to the TMS require the available connections to be confirmed and responsibility for exceptions to be settled.

If the problem is questions about the current packing rules, that is a different scope: a knowledge base for contract logistics. A shift handover is about the current state of a specific case. Start that conversation with information the previous shift did not manage to hand over and the next one had to reconstruct.

What it costs

Where to start

In the free review we choose one process and count the volume and the team's working time, and within 2 working days you receive a written summary with a price. We build the automation as part of AI automations, from €3,000 net.